Under the Pines

I’ve been making things to sell in various places and haven’t written anything in a long time. Working on a project earlier today, I found myself singing the songs and reciting the poems I used to teach moms, dads, and grandparents in my Games to Play With a Baby programs. It’s a great parenting tool […]

I found that reading outloud was one way to travel without leaving home. We could go to Richard Scarry’s Busytown or to the outskirts of Saskatoon in Owls in the Family and have a mini-holiday together without having to pack or spend any money. Instead what I spent was time. Time, that most precious […]

With the devastation in Haiti being shown on TV and in print, I imagine that a number of children here in Victoria wonder what would happen if there was an earthquake in our area. Although my children never asked about an earthquake, they did ask about the possibility of the ferries sinking. It can be […]

Jan. 15 A sunny day, at least for a few hours! On a clear day, the dust motes in the air, the smudges on the glass panels in the doors downstairs, and the dust on everything shows up in glistening glory. I realize as I walk around the house that I can choose to focus […]

The rain for the last week or so began to form a small pond in our backyard yesterday. About two years after we moved into this house, we had a pond form at least two or three times each winter. I bought a pump so that I could move the rain water away from the […]

Being a mom for the past 32 years, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to create only Happy New Years for my children. I realized intellectually how impossible this was, but emotionally I still wanted them to have only happy years. I didn’t want sadness, hurt, anguish, etc. to be part of their lives. […]

At this time of year, it’s easy to become so involved with the extra activities of holiday celebrations with family and friends that we don’t realize that we have overloaded our schedules. One of the ways I tried to minimize the effect when I had babies and young children was to ensure that I took […]

I love the music of December or at least most of it. The music of the season fills me with memories of my own childhood and the years of my children’s childhoods. Raffi’s Christmas Album was released in 1983 when I had a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old. We’ve played that music over and […]